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I would love to tell you that there is an armada of new ChromeOS tablets on the horizon. Seriously. We field questions all the time from readers wanting to know when the next detachable Chromebook is going to hit the market. As much as I desperately want to tell them “YES, OEMs are ramping up to unleash an army of ChromeOS tablets,” that simply isn’t the case.
Thankfully, there are two ChromeOS tablets currently available that offer the best detachable Chromebook experiences to date and they both happen to come from Lenovo. The Snapdragon-powered Duet 3 and Duet 5 Chromebooks from Lenovo are sleek, lightweight, and just powerful enough to actually get some work done if you’re away from your daily driver or work PC. For a true tablet experience, the smaller Lenovo Duet 3 is a solid choice and thanks to the 8GB/128GB model available from Lenovo’s website, you don’t have to sacrifice performance by not buying the 13.3″ Duet 5.
I’m not really a tablet guy myself. So, when I decided to purchase a Duet for my wife, I went with the larger Duet 5. My two reasons being one, my wife uses it mostly for content consumption and the larger OLED display is an absolute dream to watch videos on. Two, I like having a device at arm’s length around the house that I can actually lap and use as a laptop if I need to update a post or knock out a quick article. The Duet 3 is simply too small for that task.
Many shoppers might steer clear of the Duet 5 due to its $499 price tag and that’s totally understandable. If you aren’t using the tablet as your primary device, that’s a bit pricey for a secondary laptop for casual use. However, you take $120 off the price and that changes the narrative a bit. At $379, the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook is a formidable 2-in-1 that’s versatile and extremely cost-effective. While it may not boast the power of an Intel Pentium Gold or Core i3 Chromebook, I’d argue that this is one of the best values around under $400. The Duet 5 has once again gone on sale at Best Buy and you can pick up for that cool $379 at the link below but act fast, these deals don’t last long. As we saw last week with the Acer Spin 714, these Chromebooks sell out fast.
